Tribal Research Centre

Tribal Research Centre (TRC) was established in 2005 under the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences at Nagaland University, Hqrs: Lumami. Since then, the Tribal Research Centre has published books, organised seminars/workshops, and regularly conducted research projects and consultancy services for various state and central government bodies. The themes of all such activities were focused on different aspects of tribal culture, tribal development, social change and development, etc. In this direction, the Centre aims to study the cultural diversities among various indigenous communities of northeast India. Tribal Research Centre aims to produce knowledge on emerging issues of tribal communities in North-East India. By bringing the cultural aspects of tribes from the North-Eastern region and beyond into the public domain, the Centre contributes to integrating tribal communities from the region with other parts of the country.

Contextualizing the Tribal Research Centre:

Northeast India has a unique history, geography, ethnic composition and culture. The region is an abode of diverse tribal communities with different languages, making the social composition complex. In the era of cultural contact with non-tribal communities, migration of people, urbanisation and globalisation, the Indigenous communities across India in general and northeast India in particular are threatened to lose their age-old cultural elements regarding folklore, oral traditions, etc. Hence, it is the need of the hour to record and preserve all those magnificent aspects of tribal culture. It's been long after the British period since no monographs of tribes from Nagaland and the northeast region were produced. The tribes of the northeast region have unique traditional governance systems, customary laws and practices, values systems, worldview about life, social organisation, and religious beliefs, which needs to be understood by the government to frame policies that can be culturally contextualised, making them suitable to the need and aspirations of the people. Such efforts of a multi-dimensional approach by the government will pave the way for a harmonious integration of tribes with other parts of the country and sustainable tribal development of the region

Vision

• To provide teaching and research facilities to students.
• To publish books/articles/reports /policy documents.
• To organise seminars/invited lectures and workshops.
• To conduct evaluation studies of various tribal development programs.

Thrust Areas

• Ethnographic studies of tribes from Nagaland and other states of the northeast region
• Documentation of tribal culture (folklores, oral traditions, songs, dance, stories, festivals, literature, linguistics, etc.)
• Change and Development in Northeast India
• Tribal Self-governing institutions
• Indigenous knowledge systems
• Rural Livelihoods
• Role of NGOs in Naga Society

School

Director i/c

Point of contact